parawars: We Fought The Water And The Water Won // Milja and Dan's blog

Today we were woken up by Heikki at 6:30 rather than the usual 7am. We could hear drips coming from outside the house, as well as from the plastic sheeting hanging just outside of our window and the rain on the pool. From the bedroom door it was possible to see the extent of what was to happen for the next 3 hours.

The roof is still off and we have temporary sheeting, as usual. The builders haven't been on site since last Thursday, so it entirely possible that some sheeting had come loose or was not placed properly intially. There were bad leaks in the dining room above the stairs, and in the corner of the lounge. While Milja got ready I helped Heikki and Minna to try and withstand the water running into and through the house.

By the time M&M left for school, there were also leaks in the kitchen through a light fixing and by the patio doors to the back. Cue two hours of rinsing and replacing towels, running around with buckets to catch new and changing drips and getting soaked in the process. I think we must have had about 10-15 towels going constantly with three major spots to tend to, and new puddles forming whenever we were too late to rinse the towels. Heikki and I were in our swimming shorts.

Major leakage
I think that's called a torrent

At about 8:30, Minna, Heikki and I were in the lounge attending to the largest leak, where water was rushing through and down the wall, over the window and splashing on the floor (see photo above). Suddenly I heard Minna gasp and a strange ripping sound, followed by a large splash, as water started coming out from the wall. A pouch in the paint seemed to form, containing the water from above. The sofa and surrounding area was wet and we scurried to contain the large flow of water.

And it came through the wall
It's coming out the wall!

Heikki started calling round the other Finnish households in Hout Bay to come help, as we were starting to tire after two hours of non-stop rinsing and rushing around. Four extra people came to help out, including our cleaner Joyce who was at work at one of the houses.

At about 9:30am, the rain had slowed enough that we were able to start drying areas. The builders came to add extra plastic sheeting to the roof and we finally had it under control.

We had leaks in the kitchen, above the patio doors, the lounge, above M&H's bedroom door, M&H's bedroom, Matias' room (x2), above the stairs (which made a puddle all the way over to our bedroom) and in our bathroom. Not much fun for a morning when I was hoping to lie in! My hands are red raw from all the hours of rinsing towels and we now have a dehumidifier to try and get rid of the dampness. We just treated ourselves to take-away pizza from Primi.

Moving along
Leaking into our room